Aaron Stillmaker

Aaron Stillmaker is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in the Lyles College of Engineering at California State University, Fresno. Previously, he served as the director of the LCOE Honors Program from 2022-2025 and was an Assistant Professor at California State University, Fullerton in Fall 2016. His academic career builds upon extensive research experience at the VLSI Computation Lab at UC Davis where he earned his PhD.

Dr. Stillmaker's educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of California, Davis (2015)
• M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of California, Davis (2013)
• B.S. in Computer Engineering (Magna Cum Laude) from California State University, Fresno (2008)

His research focuses on the design and implementation of energy-efficient many-core processor arrays, with particular expertise in VLSI design, physical many-core architectures, and parallel processing algorithms. His work addresses fundamental challenges in scaling processor architectures beyond traditional multi-core designs, with emphasis on communication efficiency, power management, and application-specific optimizations. Dr. Stillmaker has made significant contributions to the development of the KiloCore processor array containing 1000 independent processing cores.

Analysis of his publication record shows a consistent trajectory from fundamental research on CMOS scaling and processor architecture to practical implementations of many-core systems. His work demonstrates strong interdisciplinary connections between computer architecture, VLSI design, and application-specific computing, with increasing focus on energy efficiency metrics and practical implementation challenges as technology nodes shrink.

Dr. Stillmaker has served as a reviewer for prestigious journals including IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, and IEEE Micro. He has also been active in professional service as a Chapter Advisor for CA-L Tau Beta Pi Chapter at UC Davis.

His teaching responsibilities at Fresno State include courses such as ENGR 1H/3H: Engineering Honors Seminar, ECE 106: Switching Theory and Logical Design, and ECE 243: VLSI Physical Design. He maintains regular student success hours both in-person and via Zoom to support student learning.

Professional experience includes internships at Intel Labs (Circuit Research Lab) in Hillsboro, OR and at Pelco Inc., providing him with valuable industry perspective that informs his academic work and teaching.